The Smurfs Are Headed for the Big Screen

The retro revivals just keep coming. Variety reports that Columbia Pictures and Sony Animation are bringing The Smurfs to the big screen. David Stem and David Weiss, the authors behind the last two installments of Shrek, are in talks to pen the screenplay. No word yet on director, release date, or plot outline.

A Smurfs movie has actually been in the works since 2002 at Paramount/Nickelodeon (we first reported on it back in 2005), but producer Jordan Kerner has brought the rights over to Sony. The original plan was to make it a 3-D CGI feature which, frankly, sounds terrifying to me. Sony Animation plans to make it a combination of live action and CGI, like Alvin and the Chipmunks. I'm unsettled by the idea of seeing them in CGI, as I think their charm primarily comes from their classic animation. Chipmunks can be (relatively) cute in CGI, but Smurfs?

But you know what this means? Some poor actor out there is destined to play Gargamel! It's funny, there was always someone he reminded me of as a kid, but the memory is long gone. Probably for the best. Start naming actors who you want to see in the patchy black robe.

Columbia aims for the movie to reintroduce the beloved Smurfs to a whole new audience, as the cartoon stopped regularly airing on NBC in 1990. That means there are really kids who have never seen or heard of the Smurfs, which is pretty shocking. I don't know if it is worth a big-screen movie, but then I was never much of a fan. However, let me take this chance to suggest that Sony animators add a few new girl Smurfs. One Smurfette just isn't going to fly anymore.